You are here

LEFTOVERS: Food for Super Bowl? Kale, no!

By STEVE CARPLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The closer we get to Sunday’s Super Bowl, the dumber things seem to be getting.

Take Eric Borgia, the executive chef for Delaware North Sportservice, which is the concessionaire for MetLife Stadium, the site for the Seattle Seahawks-Denver Broncos showdown. In an attempt to get creative with the menu, Borgia is trying to jazz things up for the people who probably will be freezing their tails off. He claims to have come up with dishes that represent the New York area. You know, like a chicken sausage and Tuscan kale sandwich, which Borgia believes is something you can identify with Manhattan.

Kale? In Manhattan?

“Kale is so trendy right now,” Borgia told the New York Post. “Every book you open up, it’s all about kale and kale chips. And it’s good for you.”

Borgia also came up with items from the other boroughs. For Brooklyn, he chose rice balls. For Queens, pork and chicken steam buns. From the Bronx, a grilled chicken hoagie with broccoli rabe. For Staten Island? Oops, nothing from Staten Island. But to represent South Jersey, a Philly cheesesteak.

As for North Jersey, Borgia treated the host area like it was Staten Island. What? No Italian hot dogs?

Suffice to say, this is yet another lame exercise into trying to attach local culture to the Super Bowl. So enjoy your kale, fans. And enjoy coughing up about $18 for the privilege of eating healthy. Real Manhattanites will get by on fatty pastrami.

■ BEAST MODE BLUNTS — What would this Super Bowl be without a marijuana reference, given Colorado and Washington have legalized the sale of the drug. And, of course, it didn’t take some pot entrepreneur long to try to cash in on the game, as a Seattle-area co-op has produced a potent blend called “Beast Mode” in tribute to running back Marshawn Lynch.

According to the Seattle Times, most of the legalized pot sold in Washington has a THC content of 12 percent to 20 percent. The Beast Mode blend is 17.6 percent. It also has a Super Bowl price attached to it — $150 for a half-ounce.

■ THE STREAK LIVES — The Super Bowl dates to 1967, and in the years since, the number of media that cover the game has grown exponentially. In the first Super Bowl, 338 media were credentialed. For Sunday’s game, more than 5,300 credentials have been issued.

But of the 5,300, only three can claim to have attended all 48 Super Bowls. One of them is Henderson resident Jerry Izenberg, the sports columnist emeritus for the Newark Star-Ledger. The others are Jerry Green of The Detroit News and Dave Klein, a former contemporary of Izenberg’s at the Star-Ledger who runs a football website.

All will be at MetLife Stadium for Sunday’s game, though Izenberg, 83, wasn’t sure for a while whether he would be able to make the trip after undergoing back surgery a few weeks ago. But his recuperative powers were amazing, and his doctors told him he could travel to the game.

Izenberg’s goal is to get to Super Bowl L in 2016 at the San Francisco 49ers’ Levis Stadium. For now, he’ll have to deal with the cold weather, miserable traffic and rude people, all reasons he left Jersey in the first place for Henderson, where it was a rough-and-tumble 69 degrees Tuesday.

Comment section guidelines

The below comment section contains thoughts and opinions from users that in no way represent the views of the Las Vegas Review-Journal or GateHouse Media. This public platform is intended to provide a forum for users of reviewjournal.com to share ideas, express thoughtful opinions and carry the conversation beyond the article. Users must follow the guidelines under our Commenting Policy and are encouraged to use the moderation tools to help maintain civility and keep discussions on topic.